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The rifle arrived this morning and I made a quick trip out to the local pit to at least function test the rifle.
I inspected, degreased and lightly oiled the rifle with CLP, then hand cycled some .22LR dummy rounds. I observed that the extractor was not the most positive while hand cycling, sometimes failing to fully extract, the firing pin does have some drag in the bolt, I may polish this if failure to fire becomes a problem. Otherwise the feed was excellent, but the trigger is rough and breaks at a heavy 8 lb 5oz. Overall for a replica the rifle is nice and does a good job of representing the M1 Carbine, the rifle weighs 4lbs 8 oz without magazine, the wood stock is surprisingly good by modern standards.
Arriving at the pit, the temperature was -25*C so I resolved to not bother with accuracy testing at this time. Before my hands got too cold to load magazines I was able to fire a total of 80 rounds between two magazines, many of them as fast as the rifle would cycle them.
Ammunition used was Federal High Velocity copper plated HP bulk 525 round box, common stuff that runs clean and feeds nearly every .22 I have tried without issue.
I should note the magazines will hold 11 rounds, but will not engage on a closed bolt, with the proper 10 rounds the magazine will seat on a closed bolt no problem
The first 50 worked perfectly, and the sights were on for windage right out of the box.
At round 53 I had my first malfunction, failure to extract, the spent casing was partially extracted.
Round 56 did the same.
Round 64 failed to extract this time the casing was still fully in the chamber.
Round 67 extracted but failed to eject, crushing the case in the action, as did round 69.
The last 10 cycled without issue, all malfunctions were easily cleared without the use of tools by engaging the handy bolt lock, and shaking the casing clear of the action.
Feeding and firing is excellent, the extraction is a point of contention. I will not defend this rifle as an out of the box, shoot it for 1000 rounds without cleaning, like my Kel-Tec SU-22 has been, but I am not giving up on it. I am going to investigate this extractor issue further, it is a very simple piece and I may order a replacement or look at a stiffer spring, or I might just run it and see if this is a "break-in" issue that resolves itself with use.
I have attached a couple of photos of the rifle to add to flair to the post.
More to follow.
---------- Post added at 01:17 PM ---------- Previous post was at 01:15 PM ----------
Last edited by Sentryduty; 01-16-2016 at 03:22 PM.
- Darren
1 PL West Nova Scotia Regiment 2000-2003
1 BN Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry 2003-2013
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01-16-2016 03:17 PM
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Very thorough report! Thank You. - Bob
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Advisory Panel
Finally a report on the Chiappa - thank you Sentryduty!
I had thought about getting one myself, but having read the "iffy" comments on other sites I grabbed a favorable Erma M1 that passed my way - "1st edition", very little used, with walnut stock and (the unique selling point) 4 magazines.
It looks good, but the feeding is flaky. The Erma has a habit of ramming the cartridges into the base of the barrel - i.e. it feeds too low. Tuning the magazine lips helps, but still not 100% reliable. I have an idea how to improve it, but before I launch off into speculation it would be very helpful if you could post some photos of the open action, showing the magazine/feed ramp/chamber entrance as close up as you can get.
Maybe Chiappa has a better layout - so pictures pleeeeeeese!!!
Last edited by Patrick Chadwick; 01-16-2016 at 04:23 PM.
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There's lot's of good pictures and info to be found here: http://www.m1carbinesinc.com/carbine_chiappa.html - Bob
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Advisory Panel
Thanks! That's just what I was looking for. The Chiappa magazine seems to have a rather more "wrap-around" construction to guide the cartridge, and the stack is much closer to the chamber than the Erma. If you close an Erma slowly by hand, there comes a point where the cartridge pops out of the magazine before the bullet nose has entered the chamber - a sort of "free flight" - with the result that the nose hits the bottom of the barrel/chamber face. It seems that the cartridges need to "fly" out of the magazine with sufficient velocity in order to feed properly.
This is going to be a tricky one to fix.
Last edited by Patrick Chadwick; 01-17-2016 at 08:24 AM.
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Legacy Member
- Darren
1 PL West Nova Scotia Regiment 2000-2003
1 BN Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry 2003-2013
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Advisory Panel
I'm going to wait until you've gone through about 5000 rds though. I'd love one but...we've heard these things before. I too agree that you may be able to sort out this failure you've experienced.
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Legacy Member
This one will be a tinker project for certain, I will have to see about either getting more magazines or crafting something with a bit more capacity. Trying to run the round count up on a rifle 20 rounds at a time certainly takes a bit of doing.
- Darren
1 PL West Nova Scotia Regiment 2000-2003
1 BN Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry 2003-2013
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Advisory Panel
Agreed...there must be something out there that can be modified to fit. Altered... I'll bet the mags will cost US a small fortune. Maybe P&D has some? Or an idea of what to modify?
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Legacy Member
I have a couple of ideas brewing, easiest is to get more factory magazines. The second idea is to fuse two plastic bodies together and install a longer coil spring, the third idea is some sort of frankenmagazine using a factory top and follower with another body mated to it. A distant 4th idea would be to explore 3D printing suppliers and see if something could be made on a budget.
At this point I need to investigate the extraction issues first.
- Darren
1 PL West Nova Scotia Regiment 2000-2003
1 BN Princess Patricia's Canadian Light Infantry 2003-2013
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